The State Council rejected a request to cancel the record fine of 93 million euros taxes in 2023 for the Commission of Sanctions of the Financial Market Authority to the H2O Asset Management Company, questioned by questionable investments, according to a decision communicated on Saturday.
In 2023, the financial market regulator had sanctioned H2O for serious infractions of their professional obligations to the detriment of thousands of savers, revealed a few years earlier through the publication of an article in the financial times that question the quality of some of the proposed investments.
The British company had to suspend funds in the summer of 2020 due to doubts about its valuation, depriving the savers of the possibility of recovering their bet.
The Stock Market Gendarme had inflicted a fine of 75 million euros in H2O, 15 million euros in Bruno Crasttes, its general director, with the prohibition of directing a management company for five years and 3 million euros to Vincent Chailley, Investment Director.
The Sanctions Commission had noted “the lack of liquidity” of certain investments of H2O, the fact that “they did not enter into the framework of the investment policy established by the prospects of the funds” administered by the company and that the latter did not have “sufficient information” to invest “in a reliable way.”
“Gravity of infractions”
The company had initiated several appeals against this sanction, especially before the State Council.
The applicants requested the cancellation of the AMF’s decision before the highest administrative court, arguing about irregularities in the composition of the sanctions commission and the disproportion of the fine, in particular for not having taken into account the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The State Council rejected all the arguments raised, considering in particular that “the pronounced sanctions (…) are proportional to the seriousness of the infractions committed”, as well as “to the financial situation of the interested parties”, in the case of the two leaders.
It also confirms the responsibility of the two leaders in H2O infractions, since “both have been, directly and personally, at the origin of the investment decisions that gave rise to the deficiencies in question.”
Other legal procedures are being carried out, initiated by a group that brings together thousands of savers whose funds have been blocked since 2020, while other investors have chosen the reimbursement offer made by H2O in August 2024.
A hearing is remarkably scheduled for June 24 at the Paris Economic Affairs Court.
Source: BFM TV
